The Championship returned to one of the sport’s most iconic tracks: Spa-Francorchamps. Nestled in the Ardennes forest, this legendary 7-kilometre circuit has been a proving ground where Formula 1’s boldest thrive. From 25 to 27 July, the Belgian Grand Prix kicked off the beginning of the 2025 season’s second half, and with it, a return to one of motorsport’s most revered challenges: Eau Rouge, Blanchimont, and the unpredictable Belgian skies. As in 2024, this year, fused the tradition-rich backdrop with the modern drama of a Sprint weekend—the third Sprint format of the 2025 season, following Shanghai and Miami.
With a Sprint weekend, it meant less time for teams and drivers to prepare and more time to attack. Friday offered just one practice session before Sprint Qualifying set the grid for Saturday’s 15-lap dash. Later that day, traditional Qualifying would set the stage for Sunday’s full-distance Grand Prix. And with the championship fight intensifying—especially between McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri—every point from every session would count.
Race Guide
Season: 2025 F1 World Championship
Race weekend: 25 July 2025 – 27 July 2025
Race date: Sunday, 27 July, 2025
Race start time: 15:00 local time
Circuit: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Laps: 44
Circuit length: 7.004km
2024 winner: Lewis Hamilton
| Pole position | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Driver | TBC | TBC | |
| Time | TBC | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver | TBC | TBC | |
| Time | TBC | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | TBC | TBC | |
| Second | TBC | TBC | |
| Third | TBC | TBC | |
Spa-Francorchamps is one of the crown jewels of the Formula 1 calendar—steeped in history, rich in character, and relentlessly demanding. Hosting its first world championship race 75 years ago, Spa (before the 2025 race) ranked fourth all-time in Grand Prix appearances. Stretching 7.004 kilometres through the forested hills of the Ardennes, it’s the longest circuit on the calendar and among the most technically complex. From flat-out straights to sweeping high-speed corners and tight, downhill turns, Spa delivers a full-throttle examination of both car and driver.
Each of its three sectors presents a distinct challenge: Sector 1 opens with the legendary Eau Rouge and Raidillon sequence, followed by a long straight and a heavy braking zone that has been a theatre of daring overtakes. Sector 2 slows the pace with mid-speed corners and elevation changes that punish any imbalance in setup. Then comes the more flowing Sector 3, where rhythm and traction are key. The diversity of these demands makes compromise inevitable—teams often find themselves fast in one sector but exposed in another. Recent resurfacing, completed ahead of the 2024 race, had smoothed out some of the circuit’s rough edges while boosting grip and slashing lap times. But even with modern upgrades, Spa remained every bit the classic: fast, unpredictable, and utterly unforgiving.
Circut Stats
This weekend marked the 70th running of the Belgian Grand Prix as part of the Formula 1 World Championship, and the 57th time the race was staged at its spiritual home—Spa-Francorchamps. Though Nivelles and Zolder had each hosted a handful of editions, Spa’s sweeping layout and historical weight make it the undisputed heart of Belgian motorsport. It’s a circuit forever linked to legends, none more so than Michael Schumacher, who made his debut here in 1991, scored his first F1 win at Spa a year later, and sealed his record-breaking seventh world title at the track in 2004. Before the 2025 race, Schumacher remained the most successful driver at Spa with six wins, while Lewis Hamilton held the records for most poles (6) and podiums (11) at the venue. Among constructors, Ferrari reigned supreme in Belgium, leading in wins (18), poles (17), and podium finishes (51).
Weekend Schedule
| Date | Session | Local Time |
|---|---|---|
| 25 July 2025 | Free Practice 1 (FP1) | 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm local time |
| 25 July 2025 | Sprint Qualifying | 4:30 pm – 5:14 pm local time |
| 26 July 2025 | Sprint | 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm local time |
| 26 July 2025 | Qualifying | 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm local time |
| 27 July 2025 | Race | 3:00 pm local time |
In Saturday’s Sprint Race…
Later in the day, Qualifying saw…
Race day…
Championship background
Lando Norris headed to Spa-Francorchamps riding a wave of momentum after back-to-back victories in Austria and at home in Silverstone, slashing Oscar Piastri’s lead to just eight points in the Drivers’ standings. The intra-team battle at McLaren was becoming the defining narrative of the season—two young stars pushing the limits in cars that looked increasingly like the class of the field. But Spa, with its notorious weather and Sprint weekend format, has a way of unsettling the favourites.
Max Verstappen, now 69 points adrift of the lead, returned to familiar territory with an army of Dutch fans making the pilgrimage across the border to support their local hero. Yet Verstappen’s weekend wouldn’t just be about clawing back ground—it also marked a historic shift for Red Bull Racing. With Christian Horner sacked during the summer break, the team headed into its first-ever Grand Prix without him at the helm. New team principal Laurent Mekies stepped into the spotlight, facing intense scrutiny as he fronted the media on Friday before Sprint Qualifying. Meanwhile, Ferrari and Mercedes came to Spa targeting a reset of their own. Both teams were competitive here in 2024, and with final 2025 upgrades in place before the focus shifts to the 2026 regulations, this weekend could be decisive. Add in the unpredictability of a Sprint format and a forecast that threatened rain, and Spa was shaping up to be a turning point in a season already full of twists.
Race entries
The lineup of drivers and teams remained the same as the 2025 season’s entry list, apart from:
- A driver swap at the sister teams, Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls, where Yuki Tsunoda moved up to the parent Red Bull team and Liam Lawson headed in the opposite direction back to Racing Bulls, for round three at the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix.
- Jack Doohan stepping out of the race seat at Alpine (post Miami), beginning with the following round, the 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. The team confirmed that former Williams and Alpine reserve driver, Franco Colapinto, would take his place alongside number one driver, Pierre Gasly.
Aside from these changes, all the drivers from the start of the season took to the track during FP1, Sprint Qualifying, the Sprint race, Qualifying, and the Grand Prix.
Tyre choices
Tyre strategy at Spa-Francorchamps is always a complex equation, but for the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix, Pirelli had thrown a unique twist into the mix. For the first time since the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, the tyre supplier opted for a non-consecutive compound selection: the C1 (Hard), C3 (Medium), and C4 (Soft). That meant skipping over the C2 entirely and introducing the most complex compound in the range as a fresh variable—one that hadn’t yet featured in race conditions for 2025. The Medium and Soft tyres remained unchanged from 2024, but the new Hard compound could be a game-changer, especially on a track as punishing and variable as Spa.
On paper, simulations suggested that this combination could favour two-stop strategies in Sunday’s Grand Prix, but with just one hour of free practice and the condensed Sprint weekend format, teams were left with minimal time to dial in tyre performance or understand degradation patterns. Each driver would have 12 sets of slicks instead of the usual 13, distributed across six Softs, four Mediums, and just two Hards.
Sprint Qualifying came with its own constraints too: only the Medium could be used in Q1 and Q2, while the Soft was mandatory for Q3. And then, there’s Spa’s wildcard—weather. The circuit is infamous for microclimates, where one section can be bone dry while another is soaked. With rain in the forecast, teams would have to be prepared for anything, including the potential deployment of Intermediates or even Extreme Wets .
FIND OUT MORE
Free Practice
FP1…
Free Practice 1 Classification
FP1 was held on 25 July 2025, at 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm local time.
Sprint Qualifying
Sprint Qualifying…
Sprint Qualifying Report
Sprint Qualifying Classification
Sprint Qualifying was held on 25 July 2025, 4:30 pm – 5:14 pm local time
2025 Belgian Sprint Starting Grid
The Sprint starting grid, with or without penalties, after the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying session.
Sprint Race
Report post-race.
Sprint Race Classification
The Sprint Race was held on 26 July 2025, at 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm local time.
Qualifying
Qualifying…
Full Qualifying Report
Qualifying Classification
Qualifying was held on 26 July 2025, at 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm local time.
2025 Belgian Grand Prix Starting Grid
The Grand Prix starting grid, with or without penalties, after the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying session.
What happened in the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix?
Report post-race.
2025 Belgian Grand Prix race results
The 2025 Belgian Grand Prix Race was held on 27 July 2025, at 3:00 pm local time.
2025 Post-Race F1 Championship Standings
Championship standings for Drivers’ and Teams after the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix.
2025 Post-Race F1 Drivers’ Championship Standings
2025 Post-Race F1 Constructors’ Championship Standings
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